Tickets Are On Sale Now For 45th Annual San Diego Pride Festival, July 13-14 in Balboa Park

San Diego CA— San Diego Pride announced today that Grammy and Academy Award-winning singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge will headline and close out the 2019 Pride Festival on Sunday, July 14. The San Diego Pride Parade and Festival will take place July 13-14 and includes over 90 musical acts across four stages, featuring breakthrough local and international LGBTQ artists. This year’s theme is “Stonewall 50: A Legacy of Liberation,” aligned with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, to honor and reflect on the Stonewall generation, their activism and all that the LGBTQ community has gained through their efforts.

“To my LGBTQ fans in San Diego and around the world, I have so much to thank you for,” said Melissa Etheridge. “You are the proof that we can become the change we wish to see. This community makes me a better person every day and this year at San Diego Pride, we will raise our spirits to the heavens and rock ‘til we drop!”

Etheridge is considered one of rock music’s great icons. She came out publicly in January 1993 and has since been a passionate LGBTQ advocate. The San Diego Pride performance is one of two bicoastal pride shows during the world tour for her new album, “The Medicine Show,” which will be released April 12, 2019.

“As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that launched the modern-day LGBTQ civil rights movement, our Pride theme is A Legacy of Liberation, and I can think of no one better to embody that spirit than Melissa Etheridge,” said Fernando Z. López, executive director of San Diego Pride. “Her decades of meaningful music and inspired advocacy continue to connect the LGBTQ community and carve a better path forward both here and around the world.”

Previous San Diego Pride performers include Ke$ha, TLC, Kathy Griffin, JoJo, Tinashe, Margaret Cho, En Vogue, Estelle, Ruby Rose and Big Freedia. The annual two-day festival draws in over 40,000 visitors and offers vendor booths, educational and art exhibits, cultural presentations, delicious food booths and more. The Pride Parade is the largest single-day civic event in the San Diego region and is the sixth largest Pride celebration in the United States, attracting over 250,000 people.

San Diego Pride was formed in 1974 as a sponsored program of The Center for Social Services which produced the first Lesbian and Gay Parade in San Diego in 1975 to celebrate the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion on New York’s Christopher Street. San Diego Pride was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 1994.

Tickets for the San Diego Pride Festival are currently on sale at www.sdpride.org/festival. A limited number of Melissa Etheridge meet-and-greet tickets are available. The San Diego Pride Parade takes place Saturday, July 13 at 10 a.m. and is free and open to the public. All proceeds from the festival and parade support San Diego Pride’s LGBTQ-centered philanthropy and year-round education and advocacy programs. Invite your friends on Facebook at www.bit.ly/sdpf19.

About San Diego Pride

San Diego Pride is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which has distributed more than $2.7 million in the advancement of its mission: “fostering pride, equality, and respect for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities locally, nationally, and globally.” You can learn more about the organization by visiting sdpride.org.